[Artemisia] (not so much about) Uprising fees and (more about) NMS

[Brian L. Rygg or Laura E. Barbee-Rygg]

Dietrich and Adelheid, Baron and Baroness, One Thousand Eyes, scripsit:

[amid much that I'm snipping]
> Increased NMS encourages membership;

     You say encourages, I say coerces. Different viewpoints for different
folk and all that.

     I'm not sure which appalls me more -- that the BoD responded to falling
membership-fee revenue by raising rates and (to get more people to pay the
higher rates) bringing back the long-reviled Non-Member Surcharge, instead
of lowering costs or giving folks more for their money (and no, calling an
extra fee for non-members a discount for members doesn't count) . . . or
that, despite the resistance the NMS met with the first time, so many people
have actually responded to it this time by throwing more money at Milpitas.

     Like many others here, most of the time that I've been part of this
Society (something like 15 years?), I've also been a dues-paid,
card-carrying member of the Corporation.  But this year, like last, I'm not
even considering whether the dues make sense for me on a cost-benefit basis.
While the Corporate NMS exists, I will _not_ be sending dues to Milpitas.

     Unlike last year, I've decided my uneasy compromise of going to a few
events and paying the blasted NMS wasn't right either -- which is why I'm
not at Stan Wyrm's anniversary event, the delightful Love Revel, today, and
why I won't be at Artemisia's oldest unbrokenly-annual event, Stan Wyrm's
Tournament of the Dragon's Tear, this summer, . . . or any other event that
charges a fee and must therefore levy the NMS.  I say that not because I
expect hordes of people will be asking "Where's Brendan?" (though some few
might), but simply to note that, even though I haven't managed to get to
very many out-of-Shire events the past few years, this is not an easy thing
for me.  I will, indeed, *miss* the events, in more than one sense of the
word.

     I run the risk, of course, that the BoD might never step back from the
NMS.  (And why should they? Clearly most people aren't reacting to coersion
the same way I am, so it's getting them what they want.)  If so, well, I
survived before I found the Society, I can survive without it in my life
again, even if I'd rather not. And in the meantime, maybe I'll get myself to
more fighters' practices (non-fighter that I am) and other NMS-exempt
activities.

     And maybe I'll learn Flieg's song.


Your honours in dutie.

Brendan Pilgrim